Saturday, October 13, 2012

Nicola Mocchiutti wrote this great summary of the Fireball regatta, Screwball, which took place a few weeks ago. This was taken from their Facebook page. The Fireball picture is from a super set by Luka Bartulovic on the Kalu Facebook pageRalph Stocek, Ed.

Screwball has its own special traditions. Unlike
all other regattas during the sailing season when the wind and action
is unpredictable, Screwball is pretty much guaranteed to be exciting and
eventful. This year was truly memorable. Mother Nature spoiled us with
one day of light and erratically shifty conditions, followed by two days
of 25-30 knot winds and is led to much swimming by every participant
throughout the entire weekend. Including 3 boats on the start-line of
one race with 45 seconds before the gun! Let’s just say the race
committee got a pretty good show!!!

However, the action had
already started back on shore with Tom and Pierre, who on Friday just
two hours before the first gun, had their boat upside down in the barn
and were still sanding away. But with some teamwork and a bit of luck,
they managed to pull everything together and were sailing just in time
for the start. Sometimes, luck does run out…rather quickly when it comes
to Tom and Pierre. They not only lost their newly installed slot
gaskets once, but twice!! Is third time the charm??!!

With
winds like we had, one can only imagine that boat breakage is
inevitable. And you would be right! Nic and Stephen experienced this
first hand when their rudder ripped out of their transom. Poor boat!

Once everyone was back on-land, dry and warm, we were presented with a
delicious Mexican themed dinner Saturday night. We even had a great band
playing called: Break in the Silence. Thank you very much Shane, Val,
Declan and Matys for being our musicians for the night!

I
would like to thank Luka Bartulovic for taking some awesome pictures of
us in action over the weekend.

Finally, for the boring part…the Screwball XXXI podium finishes! Nic
and Stephen finished in 3rd place, followed by Rune and Jochen in 2nd
place and Tom and Joe in 1st place!

Thank you very much to everyone who had a part in this regatta and making it as enjoyable as it always is!!!